Financial support for studying here as a non-national

[HouseHunter]

My partner is Italian and has been in Ireland for almost 10 years now. She has been working in administration roles but would love to go back to school and get a degree/Diploma.

The key issues are cost and time i.e. do you go back full time or study part time??

I am desparate to help her and am trying to find out if there are any grants or support services available to her. Obviously as a non-national national she doesnt have the same options.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some advice on this matter?

Thanks!!

 

[angelina82]

I've been in a similar situation, so hopfefully this will help.
Your partner would qualify for a higher education grant if she decided to go to a recognised college for a full time degree course (although this might not be the case if she already has a degree from Italy). You need to be an EU citizen and be ordinarily resident here, which she would definitively be having worked in Ireland for ten years. This grant covers fees (although she should not have to pay those if it is her first time studying anyways) and a maintenance grant, which is a bit above 3k a year as far as I know. You can receive a top up grant if you have been in receipt of social welfare payments so that altogether you get around 5k a year. But keep in mind that this depends on how much you earn as well (or the parents for students under 23), as the spouse's income is taken into account. The mainenance grant alone is of course not sufficient but many courses have a workload that allows part time work alonside. Studying part time on the other hand does not qualify for a grant and she would have to pay fees that are often quite steep and more than half of the full time fees.
Assuming that she is over 23 she is considered a mature student, so she should get in touch with the mature student office of her chosen college, they are usually very helpful and can waive some academic requirements if she has other relevant experience.
Another tip, she might need official proof of her language competency, although one would assume this to not be an issue after her long stay here, but after having been in a similar situation I can only recommend to check this requirement.

 

[HouseHunter]

Hi Angelina

Thank you very much. I really appreciate this and will take your advice and follow up.

Thanks again!!

hh